County trades air credits for road paving

Wednesday

Aug 27, 2008 at 7:22 AMAug 27, 2008 at 7:40 AM

RYAN ORR Staff Writer

SAN BERNARDINO — To reduce pollution, the City of Victorville will pave seven dirt roads belonging to the county in exchange for much needed air credits to offset pollution from the construction of a new power plant.

The plan was approved Tuesday by the San Bernardino County Board of Supervisors and the county will incur no cost in the road paving project.

If the County were to pay for the project itself, the cost would be as high as $4.5 million, officials said.

As part of the agreement, San Martin Road, Pacoima Road, Petaluma Road, Seneca Road, Brucite Road, Diamond Road and Emerald Road will be paved — a total of 4.26 miles. The roads are in an unincorporated area in the middle of Victorville known as Mountain View Acres.

Work is expected to begin soon and be complete in mid to late October. The paving has to be done before construction on the power plant begins, which is scheduled to start in November, officials said.

With 5,000 miles of unpaved roads in the High Desert, the resulting dust accounts for 61 percent of air pollutants, said Violette Roberts, with the Mojave Air Quality Management District.

"It's a win win for the county and the city," said Victorville City Councilman Terry Caldwell. "We cooperated with the county to achieve the maximum level of service for the people."

A lawsuit filed by the environmental group CURE is challenging the rule that the air district adopted in August 2007 allowing developers to offset polluting emissions by paving unpaved public roads — the rule that Victorville aims to capitalize on.

Caldwell said that discussion have led him to believe that the lawsuit is "bogus" and the city aims to move forward as planned.